Mommy's Best Games, Inc. is an independent game developer founded in 2007. Our seventh game, currently in development, is Pig Eat Ball on which we started working in 2013. This is behind the scenes thoughts about game development and marketing.

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Tampon Run is Good Art

Tampon Run is a game designed by two young women who met at a 'Girls Who Code' workshop. The game is good art because it challenges the player to reconsider a normally taboo topic, and because it reflects real events for the viewer to ponder anew.
The gameplay has players running and throwing tampons at people coming at them. The tampons are used as weapons. This may seem silly or forced, but it was motivated by real-life political events.

In 2013, during a vote for an anti-abortion bill, women that were allowed into the Texas State Capitol were having their tampons and maxi-pads confiscated, for fear of them being used as weapons, that is, being thrown. Ironically guns were still allowed into the Capitol. Let's think about that--actual weapons were allowed in, but tampons were not. The tampons were confiscated so as not to have them thrown and maintain the 'rules of decorum' but it sends a mixed message, that in a way, the tampons are more dangerous.

Tampon Run plays with that concept, by having the player throwing the
tampons as real weapons and stopping people coming at the player. It's
also funny to consider the title as a 'tampon run' (going to get tampons
from the store) and a play on title 'Temple Run' the hugely popular, infinite
runner series.

Putting a game on the AppStore that talks about menstruation and tampons is a bold move, because, while there are tampon timer apps for women, this puts the game in front of a bigger audience. It has the potential to help younger men and women consider the topic of menstruation and hopefully demystify it (through explanations at the start of the game) and remove some of the stigma.